This book examines ethical problems raised by a number of key twentieth-century theoretical and fictional texts by authors such as Levinas, Sartre, Beauvoir, Yourcenar, Duras and Genet. It argues that even texts which apparently espouse ethical positions based on respect for and responsibility towards others, frequently depict conflict as an insurmountable aspect of human relations. This is reflected at an aesthetic level, as these texts both describe the struggle for supremacy and replicate it in their relation to their readers.

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Authors and Affiliations

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, UK

Colin Davis

About the author

Colin Davis is Reader in French Literature at Oxford University, and Fellow and Tutor in French at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Ethical Issues in Twentieth Century French Fiction
Book Subtitle: Killing the Other
Authors: Colin Davis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230287471
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts Collection, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2000
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-333-73371-4Published: 08 December 1999
eBook ISBN: 978-0-230-28747-1Published: 08 December 1999
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VII, 228
Topics: Twentieth-Century Literature, Ethics

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book